Jailbreak iPhone 4s running iOS 6.1 With Evasi0n on Mac OS X

Launched at the end of 2011 and succeeding the iPhone 4, the iPhone 4S is the fifth generation of Apple’s market leader smartphone. It was released to critical acclaim and very favorable reviews in over twenty worldwide markets. The iPhone 4S was the fifth generation iPhone, and it was the iPhone that introduced Siri – a voice recognition system that can also voice control some of the iPhone 4S’ functions (hence the S in the iPhone 4S). Another new service introduced by the fifth generation iPhone was the iCloud (Apple’s cloud storage service that we all love). Of course, since the iPhone 4S’ release, Apple released the sixth generation iPhone, the iPhone 5. If you are curious about the differences between the two iPhone models you can read our in depth comparison here.

To give you a short summary: the iPhone 5 is lighter and thinner than the iPhone 4S, it sports a Retina display with a 16:9 (wide screen) aspect ratio as opposed to the iPhone 4S’ 1.5:1 wide screen aspect ratio and it is equipped with a better chip (the Apple A6 chip, while the iPhone 4S is equipped with Apple’s A5 chip) giving it the edge when it comes to processing power – the iPhone 5 has a dual core clocked at 1.3 GHz while the iPhone 4S’ A5 chip has a dual core clocked at only 800 MHz. There are many other differences between the two smartphones, which is normal considering they are different generations in both software and hardware. However, while many of the world’s technology lovers made the jump to the sixth generation iPhone, there are just as many that still own a fifth generation iPhone. And many of these iPhone 4S owners like to Jailbreak their smartphone of choice to get access to Cydia and the many tweaks that it offers. Assuming you are one of the iPhone 4S owners and you like to Jailbreak your smartphone, you are probably aware that you could not, until recently, Jailbreak your iOS 6.1 iPhone 4S Untethered. That changed recently when Evasi0n was released – a new Jailbreak tool that allows iPhone 4S owners to Jailbreak their iOS 6 smartphone.

A newly formed Jailbreak team, calling themselves the Evad3rs, made and released the Jailbreak tool that we mentioned above: Evasi0n. Evasi0n was released on Sunday, February 3rd. It was anticipated by a lot of people, one of the reasons being the promise of being able to Untethered Jailbreak the fifth generation iPhone (and not only the iPhone 4S, as the tool works with the majority of Apple’s devices) running iOS 6. We will write an in depth ‘how to‘ guide with instructions on what you have do to Jailbreak your iOS 6.1 iPhone 4S using Evasi0n.

You can find the guide below if you are anxious to Jailbreak your fifth generation iPhone, but before that we would like to tell you a few things about the Evad3rs’ Jailbreak tool. Evasi0n is designed to work with (almost) any iOS device and with any of the iOS 6 versions. What this means is that whether your iPhone 4S is running either iOS 6.0, or iOS 6.0.1, or iOS 6.0.2 or iOS 6.1 it does not matter as all of these iOS 6.x versions are supported by Evasi0n and you will be able to Jailbreak your smartphone. As you know, before Evasi0n, Apple devices running any iOS 6.x version could not be Jailbroken; that however changed when the Evad3rs team found and exploited some vulnerabilities in iOS 6.x and their work has resulted in Evasi0n.

Another thing we should inform you about is that the Evad3rs developed their Jailbreak tool for a wide variety of platforms, in trying to make the tool available for as many people as possible. So, regardless of whether you are a Mac OS X user, a Linux (x86 / x86_64) user or a Windows Operating System (minimum recommended version is XP) user, you will be able to use Evasi0n on your Operating System. We made this guide for the Mac OS x version of the Evasi0n tool. The requirements for this ‘how to’ guide are as follows: a fifth generation iPhone running iOS 6.1 (or any other iOS 6.x version, as Evasi0n can work with all of them), a computer running Mac OS X (19.6 minimum is needed) and an USB cable that you will use to connect your iPhone 4S to your Mac OS X computer.

Step 1.

If you are ready to begin the Jailbreak process for your fifth generation iPhone, the first thing that you need to do is download the tool that you will use for the Jailbreak process: the Evasi0n Jailbreak tool. You can find Evasi0n in our dedicated Jailbreak tools page so follow the link and download Evasi0n to your computer. Because this ‘how to’ guide is for the Mac OS X version of the Evasi0n Jailbreak tool, make sure you download the correct version. Once the download is finished, head to the location where you downloaded it and extract the archive.

Step 2.

After downloading and extracting the jailbreak tool, you need to open it. Go to the location of the extraced file and then simply double click on the file to launch it.

Step 3.

This is an optional step; what makes it optional is that it may not apply to everyone. You can skip this step if you do not have a Passcode enabled on your iPhone 4S. However, if you do have a Passcode enabled, then you must follow these instructions and disable the Passcode. So, to disable the Passcode you will first have to unlock your iPhone 4S and after that you have to go to Settings. From Settings, choose General and from there go to PasscodeLock. Simply choose Turn Passcode Off and the Passcode will be disabled and you can continue with the next step.

Step 4.

In this step, you will have to connect your fifth generation iPhone 4S to your computer. When we told you what the requirements for the Jailbreak process are, we mentioned an USB cable. This is where you will use it, to make a connection between your smartphone and your computer.

Step 5.

After you establish a connection between your iPhone 4S and your computer, the Evasi0n Jailbreak tool will inform you that it has successfully detected your fifth generation iPhone. The exact message that you will be shown on the screen should be: “iPhone 4S with iOS 6.1 detected. Click the button to begin“. And of course you will have to click on the Jailbreak button in order to start the Jailbreak process. Note that the Jailbreak button will only be active if the Evasi0n tool successfully detects your iPhone 4S; otherwise you won’t be able to press it. On the same screen you should also see a warning and an advice: Evasi0n suggests that you backup your iPhone 4S before pressing the Jailbreak button and starting the process. The chance of something disastrous happening is pretty slim. However it is not worth risking it so we also recommend that you backup your iPhone 4S before starting the Jailbreak process. In case of anything bad happening, you will be able to recover your data. It is your choice so decide on whether to backup your data or not before starting the Jailbreak process.

Step 6.

Once the Evasi0n Jailbreak tool successfully detected your iPhone 4S and you pressed the Jailbreak button, the Jailbreak process begins. At this point, Evasi0n will start preparing Jailbreak data.

Step 7.

After pressing the Jailbreak button and starting the Jailbreak process, the Evasi0n Jailbreak tool will automatically execute a few steps that are necessary for the Jailbreak process. Evasi0n will keep you informed (via messages displayed on screen) at all times with what it is currently doing. As we mentioned above, immediately after pressing the Jailbreak button, Evasi0n will start ‘preparing jailbreak data‘ which actually means that it is getting the files that it needs for the Jailbreak process. After this step, the next step that it will execute will be ‘injectingjailbreakdata‘, a step that will finish with a reboot of your iPhone 4S. The next step after the reboot will be ‘uploading the Cydia packages list‘. We recommend that you find something to do while Evasi0n executes all these steps and you do not use the computer for any other activities during this time.

Step 8.

When the Jailbreak tool completes the last step (‘uploading the Cydia packages list‘), it will show you on screen instructions of what you have to do to continue with the Jailbreak process. We will also guide you through what you have to do: first, unlock your fifth generation iPhone and in your Home screen look for a newly created icon. It is an icon created by the Evasi0n tool and its name should be “Jailbreak”. Once you find this icon, tap on it once (it is important that you tap on it only once). After tapping on it, the screen will turn black and you will be returned to Home screen of your iPhone 4S.

Step 9.

After the previous step, you should now be on your iPhone 4S’ Home screen. Now the Evasi0n jailbreak tool will begin executing another number of automated steps. It will start by writing data on your iPhone 4S; as before, it will keep you updated with what it is doing at the time via on screen displayed messages. During this part of the Jailbreak process, Evasi0n will be ‘injecting jailbreak data‘ and after that it will inform you that the ‘Root Filesystem was successfully remounted!‘. We reiterate that while the Evasi0n tool is working you should just find some other activity and not use your computer until Evasi0n completes its tasks.

Step 10.

After Evasi0n completes these steps too, you will be informed that the Jailbreak process is done. The exact message should be “Done! Device will now reboot. Please be patient, the boot will take a bit longer than usual to do a first time setup. The device may restart several times“. There are still a few small steps to follow before you will be the owner of a jailbroken iPhone 4S running iOS 6.1, but we are almost there. As the message tells you, your fifth generation iPhone will be rebooted after which Evasi0n will perform a first time setup. Again, we advise you to find something to do until it finishes with the first time setup and not use the computer during this time. We should also mention that you should not worry if the boot will take a little longer than usual – it is normal and to be expected during this part of the Jailbreak process. As are the several restarts so don’t worry about any of it.

Step 11.

Now that Evasi0n completed the first time setup, your iPhone 4S should display the Evasi0n logo over a white background. Again, Evasi0n will execute a series of automated tasks. You will be informed of the tasks that Evasi0n is executing via on screen messages (as usual). These messages will sometimes be very short, so if you missed one and you are curious to know about what Evasi0n is actually doing, here is the list of messages: ‘Setting up fstab and AFC2‘, ‘Setting up Cydia‘, ‘Setting up Cydia packages‘, ‘Clearing SpringBoard Cache‘ and the last message should be ‘Rebooting‘. After the last message Evasi0n will reboot your iPhone 4S (this will be the last reboot of the Jailbreak process). After your fifth generation iPhone reboots you can proceed to the next part.

You will once again see Evasi0n’s logo displayed on the screen, over a white background and for the last time Evasi0n will perform another series of tasks, this time completing the Jailbreak process. Just as in the previous part, these messages will be displayed briefly and if you don’t pay attention you might miss them. It is nothing important as you are not required to do anything so it is no problem if you missed them; if you want to know what exactly Evasi0n is doing, we got you covered: the messages that you will see displayed will be ‘Initializing offsets‘, ‘Finding offsets‘, ‘Patching kernel‘, ‘Cleaning up!’ and once all of these tasks are completed, you will see one last eloquent message: ‘Done! Continuing boot‘. With this message, Evasi0n completes the Jailbreak process and takes you to the Lock screen. You are almost finished Jailbreaking your iPhone 4S. There is just one more step left.

Step 12.

This is the twelfth and final step. This step is as simple and easy as the previous ones and it won’t take more than a few minutes. You should now be on the Lock Screen so unlock your iPhone 4S and navigate to your Home screen’s second (or third if you have a lot of Apps) page. On this page you should see Cydia so tap on it to open it. Once you tap on the icon, Cydia will open and initialize as it is the first time you run it on your newly Jailbroken iPhone 4S. So give it some time to perform the setup process (it shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes) and once it finishes you will be returned (the last time during the Jailbreaking process) to the Lock screen. Now you have to again unlock your iPhone 4S and open Cydia. All that remains for you to do is select the type of user you want and then you can start using Cydia. Congratulations, you are now the owner of a Jailbroken iPhone 4S running iOS 6.1. Please take a few minutes to read the notes below before starting to use your Jailbroken iPhone.

Notes:

You are probably anxious to try some Apps for your new Jailbroken iPhone 4S but before that, take a minute and continue reading. If, before starting the Jailbreak procedure, your iPhone 4S had a Passcode (that you disabled during the third step of this guide), now that you successfully Jailbroke your iPhone 4S you will have to enable the Passcode again. It is as simple as it was to disable it: you will have to navigate to Settings and then to General and from there to PasscodeLock. Once there you have to select Turn Passcode On and your iPhone 4S Passcode should be again enabled. One last note: because we wrote this guide for the Mac OS X version of the Evasi0n Jailbreak tool, if you are a Windows or Linux user this guide does not cover your version of Evasi0n. However the process is similar for all Operating Systems.

You can enjoy your Jailbroken fifth generation iPhone now. There a lots of great tweaks for it so if you want to know which are the best tweaks you can get on your Jailbroken iPhone 4S look through our site as we have many useful articles on Jailbreak tweaks. If you have any comments or suggestions, you can use the comments section below.